At fifteen Charlotte helped herd cattle on horseback from Spring Valley, Nevada to a new home in Orderville, Utah.
Charlotte was married at the age of sixteen in St George, Utah, to Edward Milo Webb, a church leader and teacher who at the age of five had walked crossed the plains to Utah following the death of his father along the Platte River. She became his third and youngest wife. Charlotte met her husband while teaching in Orderville as part of the Mormon United Order, an experimental self sustaining communal colony where all property was pooled.
In 1886 as a result of the Edmunds law outlawing polygamy, the entire family left Utah for the newly formed Mormon colonies in Chihuahua, Mexico. Originally asked by Church leaders to establish a school system in Mexico, Charlotte, and her family first stopped and wintered over in Woodruff, Arizona on the Little Colorado River. Instead, on the advise of the Church, Charlotte and Edward were called to establish a school in Snowflake, Arizona. Snowflake Academy was one of the very first high schools in Northern Arizona. Charlotte never taught just the three R's, in addition, she organized clubs and concerts , wrote and directed plays and put on entertainment that the entire community enjoyed. Known as a dramatic reader, Charlotte instituted her Sunday evenings for all the unmarried, reading aloud from the classics. She had a theory that if children read nothing but the best until they were 15, their reading habits would be set and trash would have no appeal for them. Charlotte lived in Woodruff for 12 years. During that time she raised four children on the family farm working as a teacher.
In June1898 the family resumed their journey to Mexico traveling seven weeks in a caravan of five covered wagons through frontier towns and Arizona desert. Charlotte drove the first wagon. She spent 14 years living in Mexico teaching in six communities previously without educational benefit. School was a one room log construction .One school was constructed of Ocatillos planted like stakes with a packed earthen floor and a flat sod roof. In the spring the walls turned a vivid lacquered green and a wreath of bright red blossoms bordered it's flat roof.
In 1912, at the onset of the Mexican Revolution and Pancho Villa, Charlotte and family were forced to flee their large farms leaving everything behind . Bringing only what they could carry, they arrived by wagon and horseback over the border into Douglas Az finding shelter first in a pup tent, then later at Stanton Station out side Tucson, in a temporary camp for refugees where she shared a two room lumber cabin supplemented by tents.
Forced to start over, she became a nurse known as Aunt Lottie and traveled by foot, horseback and wagon to rural outreaches in Northern Arizona for forty years. Charlotte specialized in midwifery but treated all ailments. Edward eventually built her a stone way station between Pinedale and Clay Springs on a piece of land she was homesteading. There she lived and set up shop. Among her many jobs, she also served as Justice of the Peace. In this capacity she held several trials and married at least one cowboy. At the time of her death, she was living on the Navaho Reservation serving as a nurse. She literally died in the harness as she had always lived. Charlotte lived to be 81 and was buried May 9th 1943 in Pinedale, Az.
Donor: Tom Guice, great grandson
May 2007
From the Sharlot Hall Museum Archives
At fifteen Charlotte helped herd cattle on horseback from Spring Valley, Nevada to a new home in Orderville, Utah.
Charlotte was married at the age of sixteen in St George, Utah, to Edward Milo Webb, a church leader and teacher who at the age of five had walked crossed the plains to Utah following the death of his father along the Platte River. She became his third and youngest wife. Charlotte met her husband while teaching in Orderville as part of the Mormon United Order, an experimental self sustaining communal colony where all property was pooled.
In 1886 as a result of the Edmunds law outlawing polygamy, the entire family left Utah for the newly formed Mormon colonies in Chihuahua, Mexico. Originally asked by Church leaders to establish a school system in Mexico, Charlotte, and her family first stopped and wintered over in Woodruff, Arizona on the Little Colorado River. Instead, on the advise of the Church, Charlotte and Edward were called to establish a school in Snowflake, Arizona. Snowflake Academy was one of the very first high schools in Northern Arizona. Charlotte never taught just the three R's, in addition, she organized clubs and concerts , wrote and directed plays and put on entertainment that the entire community enjoyed. Known as a dramatic reader, Charlotte instituted her Sunday evenings for all the unmarried, reading aloud from the classics. She had a theory that if children read nothing but the best until they were 15, their reading habits would be set and trash would have no appeal for them. Charlotte lived in Woodruff for 12 years. During that time she raised four children on the family farm working as a teacher.
In June1898 the family resumed their journey to Mexico traveling seven weeks in a caravan of five covered wagons through frontier towns and Arizona desert. Charlotte drove the first wagon. She spent 14 years living in Mexico teaching in six communities previously without educational benefit. School was a one room log construction .One school was constructed of Ocatillos planted like stakes with a packed earthen floor and a flat sod roof. In the spring the walls turned a vivid lacquered green and a wreath of bright red blossoms bordered it's flat roof.
In 1912, at the onset of the Mexican Revolution and Pancho Villa, Charlotte and family were forced to flee their large farms leaving everything behind . Bringing only what they could carry, they arrived by wagon and horseback over the border into Douglas Az finding shelter first in a pup tent, then later at Stanton Station out side Tucson, in a temporary camp for refugees where she shared a two room lumber cabin supplemented by tents.
Forced to start over, she became a nurse known as Aunt Lottie and traveled by foot, horseback and wagon to rural outreaches in Northern Arizona for forty years. Charlotte specialized in midwifery but treated all ailments. Edward eventually built her a stone way station between Pinedale and Clay Springs on a piece of land she was homesteading. There she lived and set up shop. Among her many jobs, she also served as Justice of the Peace. In this capacity she held several trials and married at least one cowboy. At the time of her death, she was living on the Navaho Reservation serving as a nurse. She literally died in the harness as she had always lived. Charlotte lived to be 81 and was buried May 9th 1943 in Pinedale, Az.
Donor: Tom Guice, great grandson
May 2007
From the Sharlot Hall Museum Archives
Family Members
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James Bailey Maxwell
1843–1876
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Ruth Maxwell
1845–1845
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Imogene Maxwell
1861–1868
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Franklin Bailey Maxwell
1876–1932
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John Maxwell
1891–1899
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Lucretia Jane Maxwell Black
1859–1926
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Julia Ann Maxwell Adair
1860–1915
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William Thomas Maxwell
1863–1901
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Elizabeth Luella Maxwell
1865–1868
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Lillias Salina "Lillie" Maxwell Webb
1867–1918
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William Andrew Maxwell
1868–1938
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Archibald Hodge Maxwell
1868–1935
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Mary Luticia Maxwell Pursall
1870–1934
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Cassandra "Cassie" Maxwell Serna
1871–1946
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Charles Collier Maxwell
1871–1949
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Flavius "Travis" Maxwell
1874–1891
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Lemira May Maxwell Stayner
1874–1947
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Erastus Curtis Maxwell
1877–1944
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Sarah Daphney Maxwell Baird
1879–1957
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Edna Maxwell Coates
1880–1966
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Lorenzo Bailey Maxwell
1881–1955
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George Calvin Maxwell
1882–1938
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Ida Burl Maxwell Eaton
1883–1950
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Leona Maxwell Smith
1884–1969
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Leo Millett Maxwell
1888–1962
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